UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
li BULLETIN No. 3^ 
Contribution from the OfBce of Public Roads and Rural 
Engineering, LOGAN WALLER PAGE, Director. 
&JT^Lru 
Washington, D. C. 
PROFESSIONAL PAPER. 
November 19, 1915 
[Revision of Office of Experiment Stations Bulletin No. 243.] 
LAND DRAINAGE BY MEANS OF PUMPS. 
By S. M. Woodward, Drainage Engineer. 
[Revised with special reference to the Upper Mississippi Valley by C. W. Okey, Senior Drainage 
Engineer.] 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
Effectiveness of drainage reclamation 2 
Drainage pumping in northern Europe 4 
Past experience in the United States 6 
Drainage by pumping in the Mississippi 
Valley 7 
Size of pumping districts 8 
Le vees .- 9 
Location 9 
Design 10 
Construction 11 
Maintenance 12 
Interior drainage ditches 13 
Gravity sluiceways 19 
Design of pumping plant 20 
Necessary capacity of pumping machin- 
ery 20 
Page. 
Drainage by pumping in the Mississippi 
Valley— Continued. 
Design of pumping plant — Continued. 
Location of pumping plant 34 
Types of pumping machinery 34 
Sources of power 37 
Kind of engine or motor 38 
Auxiliaries 39 
Calculation of size of pumping plant 39 
Buildings and foundations 42 
Arrangement of suction and discharge 
piping 43 
Amount and cost of pumping 49 
Operation and maintenance 53 
Present status of drainage by pumping 55 
Summary 56 
INTRODUCTION. 
The drainage of low-lying lands by the use of pumping machinery 
to lift the drainage water over levees into adjacent streams or other 
drainage channels is a recent development in this country. Along 
the banks of many of our larger interior rivers considerable areas of 
bottom land are subject to overflow from the adjacent streams dur- 
ing the high water occurring usually with great regularity through- 
out the spring and early summer months. Such lands in their 
native state do not become dry enough to be subject to ordinary 
cultural operations until well toward the middle of the summer, and 
Note.— This bulletin treats in general of the drainage of land which lies so low that it must be protected 
from overflow by levees and the drainage water pumped out of the protected area owing to lack of gravity 
outlet. The bulletin has special reference to low-lying bottom lands along the larger streams of the upper 
Mississippi Valley. 
5393°— Bull. 304—15 1 
